Wall Street Journal / New America
Shane Harris is a senior writer for the Wall Street Journal, covering national security, and a fellow with the International Security Program at New America. A former senior intelligence and national security correspondent for The Daily Beast, he is the author of The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State and @War: The Rise of the Internet Military Complex.
Senate's Russia probe focuses on foreign agents As it investigates Russia's interference in last year's election, the Senate Judiciary Committee is focused on the Foreign Agents Registration Act . On today's first day of hearings, the news was not who testified but who didn't, as we hear from Shane Harris, senior correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.
More details revealed on Trump, Jr. meeting with Russian lawyer Donald Trump, Junior's meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya dominated headlines all week. Now comes another twist: A former soviet counter-intelligence officer, Rinat Akhmetshin, also attended that Trump Tower meeting. Also reported this week is that the death of a GOP operative who tried to obtain Hillary Clinton's emails from Russian hackers -- is being treated as a suicide. Shane Harris, senior writer for the Wall Street Journal , has more on the White House's efforts to insulate the president from the issue as well as news of the suicide of another GOP operative.
Russian spies indicted in Yahoo hack For the first time, the US Justice Department is charging Russian officials with cybercrimes . Two agents of the FSB — which succeeded the KGB — are among four foreigners accused of hacking Yahoo in 2014, stealing 500 million user accounts. Shane Harris, senior national security correspondent for the Wall Street Journal , says the charges send a message to Russia that we know what it's doing.
Can America's top law enforcement officer investigate himself? Attorney General Jeff Sessions is accused of "misleading" fellow Senators during his confirmation hearing — and possibly lying in response to written questions. It's all about whether he met with Russia's ambassador as a surrogate for candidate Donald Trump and an advisor to his presidential campaign. Democrats and even some Republicans want him to recuse himself from overseeing an FBI investigation -- if one is going on. Others want him to resign. Note: After our discussion aired, Sessions issued a statement on recusal .
National intel chiefs testify on Capitol Hill At today's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Russian hacking of last year's US election. Republican John McCain said, "none of us believe" it changed the outcome. But National Intelligence Director James Clapper testified that it wasn't for lack of trying. Shane Harris covers national security for the Wall Street Journal .
Trump and the complexities of the cyber era US intelligence chiefs told a Senate committee today Russia was more aggressive than ever in hacking to influence last year's US election. Donald Trump's denial of that claim has created a crisis of credibility, and agency leaders said today they want to be as public as possible. But Senators agreed that too much openness would threaten the lives of agents and waste the billions invested in worldwide cyber-spying. Is Trump onto something American spies don't know, or is he concerned that reports of Russian influence will de-legitimize his election?
Trump’s latest appointees: Sessions, Pompeo and Flynn President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination for Attorney General is Jeff Sessions, an immigration hard-liner and opponent of legal marijuana. Trump has selected Mike Pompeo as CIA chief. Pompeo was one of the lead Benghazi investigators in the House. Trump also selected Michael Flynn as national security advisor. Flynn has advised Trump on foreign policy throughout the campaign and believes the U.S. is at war with Islam.
The Wikileaks’ campaign to bring down Clinton Julian Assange of Wikileaks has been holed up in the Ecuador’s London embassy since 2012—to avoid extradition for sex-crime charges in Sweden. Wikileaks was dumping a trove of internal documents from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign until Assange’s internet access was cut off on Saturday night. It’s been restored, and the document dump continues. Photo: Julian Assange (Espin Moe).
Could hackers disrupt election day? Donald Trump has repeatedly complained that the upcoming presidential election will be “rigged.” Saying that may or may not be an effective way to sway voters to vote for him. But there are security analysts who believe that it wouldn’t be too hard to hack not the political system, but the vote itself . Specifically, modern electronic voting machines.
FBI Director Calls Clinton 'Extremely Careless,' Recommends No Charges FBI Director James Comey announced Tuesday the results of an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers while she was Secretary of State. The FBI is not recommending any charges be brought against her, but Comey said Clinton did email classified information, leaving it vulnerable to foreign hackers, contrary to what she’s claimed. What other points did Comey criticize or contradict Clinton on?
It's Detention and Interrogation All Over Again The US has been killing Islamic State fighters with airstrikes and drones, but now 300 Special Forces are on the ground in Iraq. They're conducting so-called "targeted raids," and taking prisoners. But they're not the only ones. Today, Kurdish Peshmerga reportedly captured a US citizen, Mohammed Jamal Amin from Virginia — who is said to have entered Syria from Turkey and then made his way to Iraq — complicating the issue of what to do with ISIS detainees. Questions about "enhanced interrogation" and Guantánamo Bay are already being raised in the presidential campaign.
Obama to Meet with Victims' Families in San Bernardino During his final press conference of the year today, President Obama talked about the challenges in rooting out would-be terrorists on social media. It’s a topic on people’s minds as news continues to unfold about the attackers in this month’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, including their Facebook communications. Now the president is off for a vacation in Hawaii, but first he’s scheduled to stop in San Bernardino to meet with the shooting victims’ families.
Congressional Report Blasts Bergdahl Prisoner Swap Republicans in Congress today released a report that's revived a dispute with the Obama Administration. Last year, five prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay were traded for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was held for five years by an affiliate of the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. The report says the Pentagon violated the law, as we hear from reporter Shane Harris of the Daily Beast .
Making Sense of Intel Dispute on Russia Jet Suspicions US intelligence suggests the Russian plane that crashed last week above the Sinai Peninsula may have been brought down by an explosive device. After meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi today, British Prime Minister David Cameron cited the intelligence reports as the reason he cancelled British flights originating from the Egyptian resort town Sharm-el-Sheikh. Russian and Egyptian authorities have criticized that intelligence. Shane Harris is senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast .
More Russian Air Strikes in Syria Confound Washington Today Russian war planes carried out a second day of air strikes in Syria. Although Moscow claims to be targeting ISIS, the strikes have hit other rebel groups fighting against the Syrian government – including some backed by the US. Shane Harris, national security correspondent for the Daily Beast , has been speaking with US officials about the air strikes.
Unreliable Isis Intel Fifty intelligence analysts say their reports on ISIS and Al Qaeda are being watered down by senior officials. According to an exclusive story in the Daily Beast , the analysts complain that higher-ups are deleting assessments they consider too pessimistic, or pushing them back down the chain of command. They charge that the administration wants the intelligence to fit their political narrative: that the U.S. is making progress against ISIS. And now the Pentagon’s inspector general is investigating.
Ex-FBI Director Comey tells his side of the story Today, former FBI Director James Comey came close to calling the President who fired him a liar. The White House denied the claim and called it insulting, but Republican Senators did not challenge Comey’s truthfulness. Many questions remain: did the President try to obstruct a federal investigation? Later, we’ll go behind the “velvet rope” for a look at 5-Star health care for the richest Americans.
Venezuela spirals into economic and political chaos Venezuela, a country whose potential for prosperity is unmatched, finds itself on the verge of civil war. What sustains the repressive government? With time running out, guest host León Krauze looks at what the international community can do to pull the country from the edge of collapse.
Terrorism and tweets, hate speech and murder Just days before an election, Britain is coping with a rash of deadly terrorism, and Prime Minister Theresa May is on the defensive. And again today, President Trump has tweeted criticism of the Mayor of London. Later, a double murder in Portland, Oregon has revealed the ugly past of a supposedly “progressive” city. One immediate question: is “hate speech” protected by the First Amendment?
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?
